Pittsburgh Symphony and The Sorcerer's Stone

[paulver]

Mornin' Folks....

Went to hear the Pittsburgh Symphony play the John Williams score to the first Harry Potter movie.... "The Sorcerer's Stone" last evening. Simply an incredible musical experience.
Had seen the movie several times before, heard the music as well. However, last night the emphasis was truly on the music, and what an experience!!! Tuba player was all over it!! Horns were incredible, and the bones were masterful!! The entire orchestra was literally..... perfect!! I found myself listening in an entirely different way to the orchestra. I heard things in the music that I hadn't heard before and Williams' writing is quite intricate and unbelievable. The amount of talent on that stage was staggering, to say the least.
I haven't heard (live) many of the major symphonies across the country, but if Pittsburgh is any indication of the talent level out there, then they too, have to be incredible!

[bisontuba]

Beautiful picture...

[paulver]

Bloke...... I know!!! He's my daughter's horn teacher!!! Didn't get to see Katie and the kids as they were up in the balcony, and we were down on the main floor, and there were tons of people in "the Hall."
Texted Mark this morning. He said it was a lot of fun to play.

If I had to play that score....... I'd have had to work my *ss off...... and would have still failed miserably!!!

[paulver]

Elephant.....
They did the Star Wars thing a week or two ago. I wanted to see/hear it, but the wife overruled me..... being that it was her birthday! So, I caved rather easily.

The conductor told the audience to get involved vocally....... cheering, booing, hissing, etc., when their favorite/most hated character(s) came on screen. Sort of like an old time movie. Lots of fun for the kids and the adults. And.... there were tons of kids, and to my great surprise..... all very well behaved!! Most dressed up like their favorite character. Some adults did too.

Almost completely sold out, so it had to be a big money maker. (Tickets were pricey, but worth it.) Should be the same for you.

Best wishes for a great performance and turn out!

[Three Valves]

Popular classics for the masses??

Say it isn’ So!!

[T. J. Ricer]

The Pops-type crowd traditionally turns out for stuff like this in larger numbers, so a Star Wars-type production ended up being the route we chose. Then this Harry Potter production became available. So there we are.

I sincerely hope we have a hall packed with folks such as yourself who can enjoy the film AND appreciate what *we* are doing at the same time. I am glad you had such a great experience; this bodes well for other orchestras (mine included) that decide to utilize this production.

Thanks for your opinions. I will pass them along to our boss. It will make him feel like we made a good decision in selecting from the various film-plus-orchestra choices available today.

FWIW, we’ve done Socerer’s Stone and Chamber of Secrets out here and sold out every show... We’re doing Prisoner of Azkaban next season. I’m not sure we’ve sold out multiple shows on anything else in several years, so I would expect it will do well for you guys, too. The brasses have good fun; the violins will complain about the sheer number of notes!

[roughrider]

Mornin' Folks....

Went to hear the Pittsburgh Symphony play the John Williams score to the first Harry Potter movie.... "The Sorcerer's Stone" last evening. Simply an incredible musical experience.
Had seen the movie several times before, heard the music as well. However, last night the emphasis was truly on the music, and what an experience!!! Tuba player was all over it!! Horns were incredible, and the bones were masterful!! The entire orchestra was literally..... perfect!! I found myself listening in an entirely different way to the orchestra. I heard things in the music that I hadn't heard before and Williams' writing is quite intricate and unbelievable. The amount of talent on that stage was staggering, to say the least.
I haven't heard (live) many of the major symphonies across the country, but if Pittsburgh is any indication of the talent level out there, then they too, have to be incredible!

My daughter and grandkids were there. My son-in-law is the third horn player.
(digressing, here...)
I'm looking forward to seeing them in a couple of days. We won't be very good hosts (frantic school repairs), but I don't get to see them very often: I can squeeze in driving trips during the winter between gigs, but I'm not crazy about driving up there and back (12-hr. one-way trip in good weather) in snow and ice...and yeah, I miss 'em. As a grandparent, it always touches me deeply how completely ready they are to love me, even though they rarely see me.

That is a beautiful photograph!

[paulver]

Great to hear that you'll have some welcomed visitors shortly. I'm sure Mark will do you proud with your "new" horns, too.

Tell him that Gretchen, my daughter, is playing principal horn for Keith Lockhart on "The Planets" this Friday for the final concert at Brevard. She's all fired up!!!

Mark has helped her immensely since she's been studying with him. She really likes working with him.